


Dancing shoes and nimble soles

by oliwellwhocares



Category: Hunter X Hunter
Genre: Dancing, Family, Fluff, Gen, M/M, hand holding, really soft shit
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-06
Updated: 2018-11-06
Packaged: 2019-08-19 06:30:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,072
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16529243
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/oliwellwhocares/pseuds/oliwellwhocares
Summary: Killua learns how to dance, and fully intends to return the favor eventually.





	Dancing shoes and nimble soles

**Author's Note:**

> This is the most self-indulgent thing ever... I just really wanted them to dance together and be happy, so I hope you're here for this. Title was offered by my girlfriend because she's Shakespeare trash, it's from The Merchant of Venice !

It starts on Whale Island. The second night they spend here, when it’s time to get dinner, Mito knocks on Gon’s bedroom door, disturbing their heated argument about what kind of Nen Ging could have, and what it would mean about his personality. Killua thinks Hisoka’s stupid personality test is bullshit anyway, so he’s not unhappy that it’s time to eat instead of having stupid arguments. Except today, there’s no inviting aroma floating around the house, and when they get down, Gon’s grandmother (great-grandmother? Killua is pretty sure that her role is just to be the family’s old lady) is putting on her shoes, and Mito immediately tries to physically force a coat on her son’s shoulders.

Killua has no idea what’s going on, but he’s already figured out that on Whale Island, it’s funnier to discover than to ask. His best friend would probably argue that it’s always the case, not only in here, but his best friend also tends to be utterly blind to life-threatening dangers. But this island is definitely the safest place they’ve been yet, so he allows himself to relax, and follow the little family down the path leading to the port. They take left when they reach the first houses, a way that Killua hasn’t seen yet, and it’s when he glimpses a fire on the beach they’re apparently headed to that he ends up asking:

“Are we having a party?”

“Sort of!”, answers Gon happily. Mito smiles down at him, and it’s the first time since they left the house that they stopped bickering (he’s still not wearing a coat), so the kid seizes the occasion and runs toward the fire, Killua following immediately after him.

A group of people, maybe fifty, are gathered. Some of them already eating, some looking over fishes grilling and huge pots boiling over embers, but most turn around when Gon arrives, immediately crowding him. They ruffle his hair, several women hug him strongly, and Gon knows them all by name, asks them about their families, accepts strong claps of adult hands over his shoulders and goes around saying hello to the oldest, sitting in the sand. He looks at home, and Killua can’t stop smiling while he drags him around, introducing him to everyone. He must recognize that he’s thankful for the relative obscurity of the evening, hiding his blush at the repeated exclamations of “He’s my best friend in the whoooooole world!”. He could snap at him, because really, it’s not necessary to say it so many times, and they haven’t been around the whole world yet, but the night is warm, the beach smells good, and everyone is smiling so widely that he feels like maybe, it’s okay to accept it. Just for tonight.

The meal is just as delicious as the one Mito made last night. Him and Gon grab burning hot fishes to bite directly in them before the adults have the time to stop them, throw baked apples at each other without dropping them even once, and when the two tallest men run after them, they try so hard to make each other trip that they both end up rolling in the sand. The two guys (Niso and Kal, if Killua relies on Gon’s screeches) pick them up and throw them over their shoulders, with Gon wriggling in every direction, and Killua resting his head on his crossed arms and trying to look dignified. It probably doesn’t work, because when they’re dumped in front of Mito, she’s laughing so hard she almost falls on the ground next to them.

During this attempt at a punishment, the islanders put out the big fire, and created a circle of torches closer to the water. Some of them are sitting on little stomps of wood, fiddling with objects of various shapes, and it’s only when he hears the first notes that Killua realizes they’re instruments.

The music is simple, a lively rhythm and chords slightly out of tune. Everyone crowds inside the circle of torches, even the old Rini gets up, lying on a cane, holding the arm of a younger lady, her daughter, Tris, if Killua remembers it well. Mito is joining them too, and Gon is dusting the sand from his legs when Killua turns to him. He’s about to offer to use the occasion to explore the areas he hasn’t seen yet, or see what the one they’ve been to look like under the moonlight, but before he can talk, his best friend extends a hand towards him.

“You coming?”

Killua raises an eyebrow, glancing at the group of people twirling and stepping in rhythm, then back at his best friend.

“Dancing?”

“Yeah! It’s a party, remember?”, he answers, and Killua frowns but doesn’t have the time to retort before he continues, “What, you don’t know how to dance?”

Killua is already up and frowning before he recognizes the provocation for what it is. He crosses his arms, trying to look as uninvitable-to-a-dance as he can.

“I know how to dance.” It’s true. Their business is not glamorous, but the Zoldycks are a high-profile family, and pride themselves on having their children perfectly educated in every subject. Having to infiltrate high society events to reach famous targets is also common, so naturally, Killua can waltz perfectly. But what’s going on here is obviously not waltzing. It’s bare feet stomping on the ground at irregulars intervals, arms crossing and uncrossing, and several people running into each other, but the whole still seems harmonious and charming, in a flawed, honest way. It looks amazing, but Killua is positive that he cannot do this.

“Don’t you want to, then?”, questions his friend, and he looks at his brown eyes, wide open, his hand extended and the way he looks a little bit tense, like he just can’t wait to throw himself in the sea of people. The little sea. A lake, maybe. An intimidating lake of people who know what they’re doing where Killua clearly doesn’t.

“Nah, it’s fine”, he answers before he can really think. “I’ll just look for now.”

He’s kinda flattered by the fact that Gon takes the time to pout at him for half a second before bolting away. He’s pretty much the smallest person in the village, apart from Noko, the only other child on the island as he said, and the old Rini, so he disappears almost immediately, dragged away by anonymous hands. Killua walks to the side. Not too close to the musicians, as not to risk them beginning a discussion that he doesn’t really want to have, he settles between two torches taller than himself, just at the edge of the water. The dying waves shift the sand under his toes, and he tries to concentrate on that, on the blinking lights over the ever-moving ocean, and not on how much of a stranger he is here. Pale skin and blue eyes in the middle of shades of brown, a weird kid with a creepy aura who can’t dance with a few welcoming strangers. Except they feel less friendly now that he’s… Well, now that he’s alone.

It’s not that he regrets that Gon is having fun, but it’s obvious how much better he felt when he was next to him. He’s probably incapable of feeling unwelcome if Gon is next to him. To be fair, it’s probably a feeling shared by anyone who’s ever met Gon.

There’s a step next to him, almost silent in the sand, but for a second, Killua thinks his best friend already came back. The aura next to him feels almost like Gon, but before he even sees the bright red hair, Killua already identified the little differences. A smell more like cooked bread than deep forest, a feeling more like coming home than like feeling at home anywhere. It’s a little bit weird, how similar and different Mito is compared to her son. Like what Gon could have grown up to be, in another universe. Maybe he’s focusing on considerations of smell and aura to avoid looking the woman next to him in the eyes, but no one can prove it.

“I’m surprised he’s letting you escape the dancing.”, she finally says, like she somehow knew that he had reached the end of his inner diversion technique.

“It’s not like we need each other for everything”, he says, and he tries not to think _actually he doesn’t need me at all_.

Mito hums softly, not fazed in the slightest by his impoliteness. “Maybe not need, but he certainly wants you everywhere he goes.”

Killua is surprised enough to finally look at her, and it’s not before he notices her smile that he realizes that he’s blushing again, and this time, surrounded by little fires, there’s no hiding it.

Gon doesn’t want him everywhere he goes, Killua does. Killua is the one following him around, but now Gon’s mom is telling him that, and looking at him like she looked at her son earlier when he was telling her about the friends they made, and before he has the time to know how to react to that, the little crowd parts and Gon appears again in front of him. His brown skin reflects the fire, his hair is somehow more messed up than ever, and Killua barely understands what he’s saying when he asks “Are you coming now?”

“I-”, a look towards Mito, who is pointedly looking away now, with a wide smile showing her teeth and rounding her cheeks, “What?”, and back to Gon, who’s pushing hair away from his forehead and takes Killua’s hand before he has a chance decide _what is this_.

Gon takes a few steps backward, into the crowd, and Killua follows, obviously.

“It’s fine if you can’t dance, I’ll teach you!”

“You don’t have to-”

“It’s funnier than being without you, anyway!”, says his friend, offering him his free hand too. And in only a few seconds, Killua feels so much better, so he doesn’t even hesitate before taking it.

“Be careful”, he retorts, “I might get better than you.”

Gon just laughs, and tugs on his left hand, taking a step backwards. Killua follows, stepping forward and trying to imitate the way his friend shifts his shoulders. Gon brings his foot back, and Killua moves his at the last moment, barely avoiding getting stepped on. This earns him another giggle, and he repeats the movement with his right hand, and then left hand, right hand, and then he changes, throwing his foot forward and almost making his friend lose his balance. Killua grabs his elbow to keep himself upright, and this time they both laugh, falling into each other a little bit. The white-haired teen belatedly realizes that they moved, Mito and the ocean having disappeared from their view, hidden by the people around them, all taller than them. He doesn’t really care.

It takes him about ten minutes to really be able to avoid getting stepped on or losing his balance, and after that, he’s pretty proud to say that he makes good on his threat to get better than his teacher. He knows he doesn’t have the same energy than Gon, the way he almost kicks the ground, always makes two spins instead of one and jumps way too high for just a little dance, but really, he’s pretty good. He’s fast, follows his friend’s lead easily, even if the fact that he’s just a little bit taller than him makes a few moves awkward, which never fails to make him snicker every time Gon has to raise on his tiptoes to pass his arm above his head. His best friend pouts, but Killua knows him and even if there’s not enough light for him to see the corner of his mouth twitching as he tries to force himself not to smile, he knows it’s there.

They switch partners, eventually. At Killua’s surprise, a woman asks him to dance at some point. She has very short hair, a skin darker than Gon’s, and he has no idea what her name is, but his friend is already laughing and tugging his hand towards her, so he goes. She must have noticed that he doesn’t actually know the dance, because she takes the lead immediately. It’s pretty fun, getting used to someone taller, a little bit difficult to keep up with her long legs, but eventually she’s taken away by another lady. This one may be named Ara, or Ama, but he’s not sure, and he doesn’t really have the time to wonder because when he turns around, Gon is here.

That’s how the night goes. Sometimes, someone appears and takes one of them away. Even when it’s Gon, Killua only has to meet someone’s eyes to be invited, sometimes by two people, one time by five in a circle, doing the most complicated dance he saw yet, even if he definitely did great in this one. But every time, it only takes at most five minutes before they find each other again. They dance together, and with everyone else, never leaving each other’s sight for too long, holding hands more times than not. Everyone moves around and between them, but Killua never feels trapped. He even feels somewhat appreciated, when he rests his hands on Gon’s shoulders and jumps, swinging his legs in the air and landing at his friend’s back, and everyone claps while Gon turns around in his arms and smiles more brightly than the silver moon above them, their main source of light now that the fires are dying down.

After that, some people leave, the two men who had chased them earlier, and the first woman Killua danced with. She’s pretty cool, even if he still doesn’t know her name. It’s only then that he realizes that there’s not actually that many people left on the beach. Two of the musicians disappeared, Gon’s grandmother is nowhere to be seen, and Mito is dropping the hand of one of the only people here whose name he knows (Lal, with long braids, and a pink dress so bright, it’s almost the only color still visible in the night) to walk towards them.

Gon opens his mouth, but she interrupts him before he has the chance to make a sound.

“No.”

“But-”

“Gon, no.” She’s still smiling, looking a little bit exhausted but happy, but she crosses her arms. “You’ve been gone for a long time, so I forgot the time a little, but you’re still young, the both of you.” She throws a pointed glance at Killua, who would like to stay out of this, but on the other hand, he’s beginning to understand that this is a bedtime argument, and, like Gon apparently, he would like to stay just a little bit longer. Maybe the whole night, until dawn when everyone’s gone and just the both of them are left in the pale sunlight, jumping around and ready to begin another day. No matter what Mito thinks, they’re both capable of it.

“And with last night’s discussion, your sleeping schedule is going to end up a mess. We’re going now.” Her tone is final, and despite having known her for barely two days, even Killua knows that she won’t accept arguments. Actually, she may completely believe that he would be able to do this for days, but he’s pretty sure it won’t change her opinion.

Gon pouts, and he kinda does too, but with more dignity, he’s sure. He slips his feet back in the sandals his friend insisted to lend him, and they walk back up the trail they took at nightfall, slower now that it’s going up and Mito is obviously tired. They’re not, but they follow her rhythm, walking slowly next to her. Killua insists that he totally got better than Gon, while Gon keeps arguing that the one who jumps the highest is the best dancer, and he totally jumped the highest, come on, it’s like Killua didn’t even try. He didn’t, for the record, and if he did he definitely would have jumped higher, and he says so, loudly, while Mito tries to shush them between her giggles, and her hashed breathing from the effort.

“What do you think, aunt Mito? My jumps were-”

“Jumping doesn’t even matter, idiot!”

Mito agrees that jumping high doesn’t necessarily makes a good dancer, but she refuses to designate a winner, which her son obviously takes as an odious betrayal. He gasps loudly, but his aunt shushes them more seriously, as they’re getting closer to the house, and like Killua suspected, the family’s old lady has already gone to bed.

The floor creaks under Mito’s and Gon’s feet in the leaving room, and the kids are left alone with one last frowning of the eyebrows, obviously playful, and a finger over her lips, reminding them to at least pretend to try to be quiet. They go slowly up the stairs, freezing when Killua missteps and makes the wood creak incredibly loudly in the near silence. They stare at each other with wide eyes for a second, and when they hear a sleepy but undeniably angry “What?” from beneath, they bolt up the remaining stairs and into Gon’s room, almost throwing themselves onto the bed and dissolving into laughter.

Eventually, they both shift, lying a little bit more comfortably. They push against each other a little bit to try and rest their head on the pillow, but they’re laughing too much for it to be really serious, and they end up sharing it, resting their forehead against each other. Killua is feeling so warm, and thinking about what more dances he could learn, and how he should make use of the futon on the ground that he already ignored last night, and how he should change because his tank top is getting uncomfortable. He’s full of energy, and clearly, there’s no way he’ll fall asleep soon. Maybe they can try to sneak out, and be back early enough to escape the two women’s vigilance.

He should make that offer to Gon, but when he opens his mouth, he yawns instead. Oh well, no shame in taking a few minutes to rest. His friend is smiling at him, and he smiles back, and closes his eyes, just for a little while.

He realizes, just before falling asleep, that they never stopped holding hands.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank for reading ! I want to write one or two other chapters, but I'm not sure I will, so I'm marking this as complete for now... We'll see if I can stay focused on one idea for more than two days :/  
> Please comment if you can!


End file.
